A NEWSLETTER PUBLISHED BY INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIC ATION BY DESIGN, INC.

The Pros and Cons of Crowdsourcing
WINTER 2011

V O L .10 N O .1

In This Issue
The Pros and Cons of
Crowdsourcing ��������������������������������� }
Multimedia: Changing how
we communicate ���������������������������� }
New kiosk dispenses wine ....... 2
Japanese Businessmen
Get Back to Their Roots . .......... 2
China to develop
its own aircraft ................................ 3
Translation for right-to-left
languages ............................................. 3
Singapore’s Toast
Restaurant ........................................... 3

Features
Suggested International
Films........................................................... 2
Country Profile:
United Arab Emirates .................. 3
ICD on the road ................................ 4

ICD Travel Tip
Octopus Card
In Hong Kong, use the
“Octopus Card” for the
subway, trams, Star Ferry
boat, and parking meters.
You can purchase the
card at the MTR (subway)
stations throughout Hong
Kong. You can add credit
to it at various locations,
and purchase items
at certain businesses
like Starbucks and
McDonald’s. It’s a an easy
and convenient way of
travelling without having
to carry cash.

The idea of crowdsourcing – or using a vast internet audience to
contribute to a project – can take many forms from gathering ideas
for marketing campaigns to writing content for online encyclopedias.
Taking advantage of the knowledge of millions of internet users to further
your corporate goals can be a productive and even profitable activity.
But there are also pitfalls to this approach.
One company that recently solicited ideas for a campaign to market their
product found that within just two days, they had received hundreds of ideas.
The time their director would have spent to sort
Some major
through and select the best suggestions far
drawbacks
outweighed the costs they would have incurred in
and advantages to
hiring a marketing campaign manager. Yet there
using crowdsourcing:
are benefits to this approach including identifying
untapped talent and innovative ideas that would
not have emerged when using just
PRO
one marketing vendor.
+ Many ideas from a large
number of users
Sites that provide research
+ Reduced or no cost
material, such as Wikipedia,
often benefit from the knowledge + Fast turnaround
of multiple experts in a field.
In addition, experts can review
CON
content being offered up and make
- Lack of quality
needed corrections where factual
- Unreliability of
errors exist. On the other hand,
contributors in
meeting deadlines
with no designated oversight,
errors and misinformation can
- Lack of confidentiality
for proprietary projects
propagate when crowdsourcing
is used.

Sources: www.marketingvox.com, www.cmswire.com

Multimedia: Changing how we communicate
challenges these content shifts represent.
Although text to text translation is still
prevalent, companies are finding new methods of
Before creating a multimedia product for an
communicating with users in their target languages international audience, businesses must consider a
through graphics, sound, images, and video clips.
number of factors including:
With shifts in the approaches to delivering content,
changes in the way that content is translated are also • TECHNOLOGY - Plan for the delivery devices, such
as Blackberry® and Apple ® IPad® and learn to use
necessary.
current multimedia authoring platforms such as
Over the past two years, ICD has observed a threeArticulate ® and Adobe® Captivate®.
fold increase in the amount of video and multimedia
• VOICE AND DUBBING - Choose voice talents
content for translation. Before moving too quickly
carefully and decide how you will record voices;
into these areas, companies should consider the

See Multimedia on page

2

Multimedia from page 1

for example, decide whether to lipsynch the translated script or to use
voiceovers.
• IMAGE SUITABILITY – Understand
the cultural preferences of the target
audience and ensure that images are
appropriate.

New kiosk dispenses wine
through vending technology

• IMAGE ELEMENTS – Analyze lines,
shapes and other graphic elements,
especially color and how those elements
will be perceived by the target audience.
For example, some cultures respond
well to red, while others may respond
negatively.
• ENGLISH ACRONYMS – Avoid using
English acronyms to convey learning
concepts as such acronyms do not
translate well into other languages; for
example:
SELF = Selling Experience Like Fire
or
FOUR = Finalizing Our User Resources.

At a time when businesses are closely
watching their budgets, companies are
increasingly finding themselves in a
position to make the call between “ideal”
versus “good enough” in developing and
delivering content to a global customer
base. In making those decisions, ensure
you are well-informed on the many
considerations to take into account
when delivering multimedia content to
international audiences.

Suggested International Films
Bienvenue chez les chtis

(Welcome to the Sticks) (France 2008)

In an effort to please his wife, a
French postal worker seeks a transfer
to the French Riviera, but is instead
caught scamming an inspector and is
transferred to a town in the far north
of France where the unemployed and
hard-drinking residents speak a strange
dialect called “Ch’ti”.

The White Ribbon (Germany 2009)
As more and more consumers
appreciate the convenience
of self-checkout and vending
machines, a French manufacturer
has come up with a new idea for
vending wine on demand.
A greener approach than selling
wine in individual bottles, the
kiosks require that consumers
bring their own reusable
containers, reducing not just
packaging but also transportation
costs. Currently, the machines are
available in eight supermarkets
in France and if the idea takes off,
it may spread to other European
countries soon.
Source: www.popsci.com

EMPLOYEE PROFILE

Mitchell Donaldson Business Development Manager
With his background as an Account Executive for a localization
service provider, Mitch brings to ICD solid expertise in
understanding the complete localization process, identifying
client needs for translation, and ensuring that client
requirements are met.
Among Mitch’s activities at ICD are working at trade shows and
serving as a consultant to clients requesting translation. Fluent in
Mandarin Chinese, Mitch is uniquely qualified to advise customers
on reaching the Chinese market through translated collateral.
Having earned his BA in East Asian Languages and Literature at
Indiana University in Bloomington, Mitch’s interest and proficiency
in languages extends to French and Spanish as well.
A frequent traveler, Mitch served as a Database Manager for a sports
hospitality company at both the Beijing Olympics and the World Cup
in South Africa. In his spare time, Mitch enjoys rollerblading and
collecting subway maps from around the world.
2

Set in rural northern Germany in 1913,
the film chronicles a series of violent
acts and punishment that seem to
foreshadow the impending world war
and suggest the origins of Fascism.

I Am Love (Io Sono L’Amore) (Italy 2009)
On the surface, a loving Italian family
has its patina of propriety pulled back,
revealing jealousies and tension at
the family patriarch’s birthday
gathering.

Japanese Businessmen
Get Back to Their Roots
With urban farming becoming more prevalent as
a source of ingredients for upscale restaurants,
it’s no surprise that businesses are finding ways
to incorporate this trend into their work day.
In the Otemachi business district near Tokyo,
a 1,000-square-foot indoor rice paddy has
been created and is being maintained by
office workers and professional gardeners.
While creators view the rice paddy as a way for
office workers to relax and get back to their
horticultural roots, the indoor farm also supplies
about 100 pounds of rice to the building’s
cafeteria.
Source: www.popsci.com

UNIQUEWORDS: EGOT

While EGOT has not been officially adopted
by Webster’s as a new word, Hollywood
personalities may be getting accustomed to
using this new term coined in a television
show to refer to actors who have earned the
Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards.

Translation tips for right-to-left languages
When translating your content into languages — such as Arabic and
Hebrew — that are written from right to left, keep in mind these tips:

China to develop
its own aircraft
In a few years, China may be joining the ranks
of large aircraft manufacturers like Boeing
and Airbus when its new C919 passenger jet
goes into full production in 2016. The recently
unveiled C919 aircraft, billed as a high-capacity
jet, is not expected to be comparable to the
huge Airbus A380 and the Boeing 737. If the 156seat passenger aircraft proves to be successful,
it will represent China’s first foray into the
manufacturing and design of domestic-haul
aircraft to meet the country’s own aviation
needs.
Source: www.popsci.com

HUMOR IN TRANSLATION

Determine whether the desktop
publishing tool that you will use to
author your English content supports
right-to-left target languages. Desktop
publishing of the translated content
will be easier if you have used one of
these DTP tools at the outset of your
project. One of the popular desktop
publishing tools that provides this
support is Adobe® InDesign® Creative
Suite for Middle East Languages (CS-ME).
Microsoft Office® also supports rightto-left languages.
Create graphics without any text if
you are planning on translating into
Arabic or Hebrew. Because most popular
graphics tools do not currently support
right-to-left content, translators cannot
place the translated text within the
versions of the graphics for the target

languages. Instead, create numbered
callouts within the graphics. Then
provide a separate table, as text, that
provides the corresponding descriptions
for each callout.
Pay close attention to web site layout
when you are localizing in a language
like Arabic or Hebrew. Because these
are right-to-left languages, you will
likely need to redesign the layout
of the translated web pages to suit
the reading patterns. This point is
especially important when your web site
contains navigational elements such
as navigation bars or menus on the left
of the page. For example, your vertical
navigation bar typically belongs on the
left side of the web page for English, but
on the right side for Arabic or Hebrew.
Source: www.michelinguide.com

This photograph of a creative translation
into English was taken in Shanghai, China.
COUNTRY PROFILE
IRAN

Dining aficionados seeking to find yet another
restaurant centered around a specific food
might consider the Ya Kun restaurant chain
in Singapore, which features dishes focused
almost entirely on… toast. The restaurant
uses a special thin toast to serve up a variety
of dishes including cheese toast, French toast,
cheesy French toast, and ice cream toast with
flavors such as durian. One of the specialties is
toast with kaya spread, consisting of eggs, sugar
and coconut milk and flavored with pandan, an
aromatic leaf that adds a sweet flavor.
Source: www.yakun.com